pentagon acquisition reform

The US Navy is focused on a major shift in its maritime strategy. With global threats mounting, our Navy is implementing "distributed lethality," a vision that will enable forces to operate in a dispersed, often autonomous manner. – Defense News

Mackenzie Eaglen and Rick Berger write: The pivot to Asia and aggression by Russia brought renewed purpose and funding to the Navy and Army, but not the Air Force. Despite its unheralded role in supporting the joint force and its crucial role in establishing air superiority, the service continues to bear the brunt of reduced funding and constant meddling by Congress that goes beyond helpful oversight. – Washington ExaminerKelley Sayler and Paul Scharre write: While plans for the B-21 — née Long Range Strike-Bomber — have long included an unmanned option, Air Force officials have shown little interest in having that capability on Day One of the plane’s service life. This is unwise; an unmanned option would increase the U.S. military’s operational flexibility, providing much-needed endurance and persistence at only a marginal increase in cost. – Defense One

The U.S. Marine Corps is progressing with a new project to arm its MV-22 Osprey aircraft with new weapons such as laser-guided 2.75in rockets, missiles and heavy guns - a move which would expand the tiltrotor's mission set beyond supply, weapons and forces transport to include a wider range of offensive and defensive combat missions, Corps officials said. – Scout Warrior

Insitu’s ScanEagle small unmanned aerial vehicle will soon have two advancements to improve its performance in the maritime environment and on land – an expeditionary launching system and a new Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) sensor for broad-area maritime surveillance – further opening up the potential vendor base for the Boeing subsidiary. – USNI NewsOperating under a $321 million contract from Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Lockheed Martin is set to complete the critical design review (CDR) for the company’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) next month, company officials told USNI News on Tuesday. – USNI News

Ahead of a House floor vote on the 2017 defense policy bill this week, the White House threatened a veto over the bill's raid on wartime funds for routine spending — calls the bill a “dangerous” approach and a “gimmick” that gambles with the safety of US troops. – Defense NewsThe Pentagon on Monday took sides with the Senate in a looming fight with the House Armed Services Committees over how to increase defense spending in 2017. – The HillThe Marine Corps is projected to remain a force of 182,000 in coming years, but the four-star assistant commandant of the Marine Corps said new threats may require an increase of 5,000 troops or more. – Military.comMarines' worn-out equipment is not being replaced quickly enough, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller said Monday, calling the Pentagon's process for fielding new gear "too slow." – Defense NewsThe Marines are aiming to make their MV-22 Ospreys more lethal and faster, the service's top aviator said Monday. – Military TimesThe Navy’s senior information warfare officer defined the terrain he is working in as a combination of electronic and cyber warfare with a goal for this year updating the service and joint strategies to create a set of guidance for the community that, “means something.” – USNI NewsThe director of the Navy staff told industry “if you’re not open architecture, you’re not relevant” when having to fight in a contested environment so offer the sea services systems that meet that requirement and can be used in a variety of ways. – USNI News

After 15 years of conflict, the Army knows how to fight terrorist groups and how to train its partners to do so, as well. But that is both a blessing and a curse. – New York TimesDefense Secretary Ashton B. Carter sees a variety of missions for the Pentagon’s new, secretive space center — and that includes fighting the Islamic State. – Washington Post's CheckpointIn a surprise move, Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman John McCain is looking to eliminate the F-35 joint program office, currently the hub of the gargantuan operation that spans three US services and 12 nations. – Defense NewsAnalysts suggest McCain’s changes to the acquisitions structure, revealed Thursday as part of his committee’s National Defense Authorization Act markup, would send the Pentagon back to an older structure, to a time when the services' handling of basic acquisition programs and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) was limited to looking at future innovations. – Defense NewsThe Marine Corps is getting back to the basics to solve its aviation readiness problems, with a focus on contracting for spare parts and enhanced training for aircraft maintainers at the heart of several type/model/series’ readiness recovery plans, the deputy commandant for aviation told USNI News this week. – USNI NewsDefense Secretary Ash Carter installed a new Air Force general atop the outfit that keeps the country safe from enemy air power: the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. – Defense OneInternal Pentagon drama is strangling Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s signature initiative to make the military’s promotion system function more like a Fortune 500 company, leaving the controversial reform effort unlikely to succeed during the Obama administration's final months. – Military TimesThe fight over women registering for the military draft is splitting Democrats. Some see the issue as one of basic gender equality, arguing women should face the same requirements as men. Others argue that no one should be required to register for the draft, and that including women would be a step in the wrong direction. – The HillAiming specifically to determine how the High Energy Laser Mobile Test Truck might help troops in the Army of 2025, the service’s weapon system participated in an exercise at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, conducted through the Fires Center of Excellence Battle Lab. – Defense News

Defense Secretary Ash Carter must be envious of what the Israeli government has put together in the Negev desert city of Beersheba, where a gleaming new complex is bringing together “some of the country’s top talent from the military, academia and business,” the Washington Post points out. The complex -- and the collaboration -- is similar to what Carter has been trying to put together in Silicon valley for the past year.

The U.S. Navy is suffering from an inability to deploy ships to key international conflict zones due to rising maintenance issues on an aging fleet, that is increasingly being sidelined for lengthy repairs, according to military experts and a new government investigation. – Washington Free Beacon

Congress is moving to increase the war powers and longevity of the nation's top military officer, while removing any whiff of politics by delinking Senate confirmation from presidential election years. – Washington Times

The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its $602 billion annual defense policy bill Thursday, setting itself up for a clash with the House on several points. – The HillOn Thursday, McCain’s committee unveiled its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, with significant changes sought to the way the Pentagon does business. – Defense NewsIn their dueling drafts of the annual defense bill, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain has staked out bold positions where the House’s Mac Thornberry is cautious — and McCain is cautious where Thornberry is bold. – Breaking DefenseSenate Armed Services Chairman John McCain is seeking to erase the office of the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer and divide its duties between two positions, one of them a new chief technological innovator for the Defense Department. – Defense News

If Republican Sen. John McCain and his Senate Armed Services Committee get their way, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, Frank Kendall, will be out of a job. Kendall’s hugely influential gig as the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, would be split in two, an Under Secretary for Management and and an Under Secretary for Research and Engineering who would push high-tech innovation initiatives.

The committee also calls for the White House’s National Security Council staff to be capped at 150 (it’s grown to about 400 in recent years). McCain labeled the $602 billion document “a reform bill,” and it also outlines plans to expand the role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon’s global combatant commanders to take more of a role in planning and carrying out plans for war.

The Navy is creating an offensive anti-surface network that will tie targeting information from satellites, aircraft, ships, submarines and the weapons themselves to form a lethal “kill web” designed to keep pace with the expanding lethal power of potential adversaries, service officials outlined on Tuesday. – USNI News

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger criticized the tone of today's political discourse, as well as those who confuse "extrication" from wars as strategy, at a Pentagon ceremony honoring him on Monday. – The HillTop Republican political leaders aren’t the only ones shunning their party’s presidential nominee — a vast number of highly skilled managers and policy experts, veterans of recent GOP administrations who would normally be expected to fill key positions for a new White House, are also vowing to sit out a Donald Trump presidency. - PoliticoWilliam McGurn writes: When President Obama leaves office about eight months from now, he will leave behind a growing war in Iraq. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have each vowed to fight it—he with bombings and surrogates, she without combat troops. And both with the pretense that we can win on the cheap, without a potentially unpopular presidential commitment. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

The Marine Corps cannot rely on new gear alone to be prepared for the next war that arises, but rather needs to train now for a future naval-centric battle in the age of information warfare, the commandant of the Marine Corps said last week. – USNI NewsDespite the promise held out by industry proponents of lasers and high-power microwave bursts, military officials and senators from both sides of the aisle said that lack of funding was putting a crimp on the necessary research and testing for the new weapons under the constraints of the 2011 Budget Control Act. – Defense TechA Republican congressman is seeking to strike language requiring women to register for the draft from a defense policy bill. – The HillThe Marine Corps has approved requests by two women to move into infantry military occupational specialties. One woman has been approved to become a rifleman and another to become a machine gunner, said Capt. Philip Kulczewski, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon. – Military TimesFPI Policy Director David Adesnik writes: he final shape of the NDAA will likely remain uncertain until the two versions of the bill go to conference, probably toward the end of the summer. At the moment, it is difficult to foresee any compromise that would satisfy both the White House and the Republican majority in Congress. Thus, it appears as though the defense bill is again headed for an end-of-year showdown, while the readiness and technological advantages of the Armed Forces continue to erode because there no agreement on how to undo the damage inflicted by the BCA. – Foreign Policy InitiativeMary Beth Long writes: The technologically advanced weapons systems of the future are not going to operate, maintain, and sustain themselves. Humans are central to the successful conduct of war, and we had better start discussing how to invest in and reward skilled people—who are far more valuable than our “stuff.” – The American Interest

The F-35 joint program office has completed development of the Block 3i software the Air Force will use to declare its jets operational later this year, and will soon begin retrofitting the fleet with the improved software load – Defense News

Adam Lowther writes: Attempting to create a de-facto fixed-price contract for the B‑21 program, a move with no historical precedent, is not the correct solution to strengthening an already frustrating acquisition process. Rather than harming the B-21 program (a capability clearly needed to defend the nation and her allies), perhaps it is time for Congress to consider implementing some of the recommendations made in the more than 150 acquisition reform studies conducted over the past decade. There is certainly no shortage of well-researched solutions. – Breaking Defense

The White House has joined Defense Secretary Ash Carter in slamming a plan, approved by the House Armed Services Committee, that would end the Pentagon’s wartime supplemental fund come April 2017. – Defense NewsHow many submarines does the US Navy need? How many surface warships? How many aircraft carriers? Should they be big, small, medium? What should they do? Do we need different kinds of ships or aircraft? What sorts of formations should they deploy with — or fight with? Those are some of the issues and questions being pondered this spring and summer as the US Navy works through several interlinked efforts to reach a new understanding of where it’s headed over the next several decades. – Defense NewsInstead of begging for more money — which won’t come — it’s time to face facts and use the fiscal pressure to force efficiencies and reforms, says a new report from an elite group of officers at the Army War College, the service’s school for future generals. – Breaking DefenseF-35 critics often point to the Pentagon's decision to start building the fifth-generation fighter before design and testing is complete as the root of the program's problems. Even now, as the Air Force prepares to declare its F-35A jets operational this year, so-called "concurrency" remains an obstacle. – Defense NewsF-35 production is slated to hit full steam in 2019, and Lockheed Martin is reshaping its final assembly line to get ready. – Defense OneThe Littoral Combat Ship program will reach several major milestones in the coming months, from conducting full ship shock trials on both hull variants, to demonstrating a new expeditionary mine mission package, to refining operational concepts, the outgoing program executive officer told USNI News in a May 2 interview. – USNI NewsPhysiological episodes — including hypoxia and decompression sickness from loss of cockpit air flow — , which are hard to diagnose after the fact, are a confirmed cause in at least 15 naval aviation deaths in the past two decades — and aviators are worried more pilots may die before officials fix the problems…These show a troubling rise in the number of breathing and pressurization problems, and that Navy and Marine F/A-18 Hornet and EA-18G Growler aviators view the problematic On-Board Oxygen Generation System as the fleet's most pressing safety issue 10 times over. – Military TimesUS Army Special Operations has a big appetite for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets and is just scratching the surface on what is possible, according to Maj. Gen. Clayton Hutmacher, its deputy commander. – Defense NewsPhillip Lohaus writes: The Army is not the only part of the Defense Department that is in need of internal reform to better address contemporary threats…But given the fact that the Army is currently facing, as one author bluntly put, an identity crisis, it has the opportunity to lead the way on meaningful structural reform. Pursuing greater agility, adaptability, and ambidexterity will increase the ability of the Army to face both current and future threats, regardless of what future budgets might bring. – The National Interest

By all accounts, though, Carter is now in his dream job, the pinnacle of a career at the Pentagon that began in the early 1980s when he was a physicist working on nuclear weapons issues. And his status as Obama’s fourth Pentagon chief — the White House almost certainly wants to avoid having a fifth — gives him some room to stake out positions that might be more in line with the potential next administration than the current one. - PoliticoEli Lake writes: The idea that Rhodes is somehow independent of, or in opposition to, the foreign policy establishment is delusion. He embodies that establishment, particularly when it comes to the Iran deal. – Bloomberg ViewMax Boot writes: Obama and Rhodes would be better advised to look within and to ask what went wrong: Why were their high hopes, the hopes encapsulated in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, so cruelly dashed? Some of it is due to events beyond their control–but a lot was due to the mistakes they made and continue to make. The fact that the president and his top aides seem to have no awareness of those mistakes is mystifying and dismaying. – CommentaryFred Fleitz writes: Obama will leave multiple serious international crises for his successor to deal with. To solve these crises and restore America’s global standing, it is vital that the next president abandon President Obama’s irresponsible style of managing U.S. foreign policy; the next president must hire competent advisers and trust the secretaries of State and Defense and other Senate-confirmed national-security officials to do their jobs – National Review Online

Marine Commander: Our Next WarOne of our favorite rhetorical devices is when a service chief takes a stab at humility by insisting he doesn’t know where the next war will be, or how it will be fought -- but then proceeds to explain exactly how it’ll all go down.

Speaking at a dinner event earlier this month, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said when mapping out the next war, “inevitably we’ll guess wrong,” but -- but -- “I think there’s some things we can say about what that next fight’s going to be. I think it’s going to be based on a maritime campaign: we’re going to fight with the Navy, we’re going to come from the sea, we’re going to seize some sort of naval base or maybe forward operating base. We may have to defend it against an enemy maritime threat.”

He continued, “I think our enemy is going to be different, I think it’s going to be a near-peer enemy. The enemy’s going to be networked, they’re going to jam our comms.” That’s pretty specific. Not that his assumptions are wrong, but the next war sounds pretty well tailored for how the Marine Corps views its role in America’s wars.

The Truman carrier strike group’s extension in the Middle East shows the U.S. military commitment to accelerate the campaign against the Islamic State group, but some analysts believe it also shows why the service’s plan to limit carrier deployments is unrealistic. – Stars and StripesAs debate rages in Washington over replacing the A-10 attack plane with the fifth-generation joint strike fighter, test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base, California, are getting a firsthand look at the F-35’s capabilities. – Defense NewsThe US Army’s aviation force should embody the Army Operating Concept — its mission describes the doctrine to a T — but as its aircraft age, budgets shrink and its size grows smaller, service leaders question whether the fleet can keep up. – Defense News

The Navy’s futuristic electric cannon, or railgun, received yet more hype this week for its ability to fire a shell at up to 5,600 miles per hour, and do it far more cheaply than a missile. But there’s a daunting reality behind the hype: the Pentagon is already looking past the railgun to a less power-intensive, more easily deployable alternative. The railgun rounds can be fired from more conventional cannons, giving the same capability sooner and cheaper. – Defense One

U.S. military readiness has deteriorated over the past year, according to a study Wednesday by a conservative think-tank that said the four service branches are unable to "meet their day-to-day requirements" and lack the "operational depth required to respond to a major crisis." – Washington TimesCongress is pressing the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency to counter the growing threat of high-speed, maneuvering missiles. – Washington Free BeaconIf ground forces are obsolete, why are the Chinese bothering to build all those artificial islands in the South China Sea? The answer to that is key to the US Army’s emerging vision of its future role, a complex combination of old-fashioned close combat, resilient wireless networks, and advanced long-range weapons that extend the Army’s reach well beyond the land. – Breaking DefenseBack-to-back years of budget cuts are forcing the Marine Corps to slash in half its fleet of crisis response Ospreys in Spain, a move that comes as the force struggles to maintain its overall state of readiness, according to senior Defense Department officials. – Stars and StripesThe Littoral Combat Ship program is poised to make big strides this year in its strike capability, both with over-the-horizon missiles and the shorter-range Longbow Hellfire missile. – USNI NewsFebruary’s cancellation of further development and procurement of the Remote Minehunting System (RMS) killed off the largest element of the US Navy’s future mine countermeasures (MCM) capabilities. Now, the US Navy is setting up a new mine governance board to help set in motion the recommendations of the independent review team that recommended RMS cancellation. – Defense News

The House Armed Services Committee’s defense policy bill, passed April 28, tees up clashes with the Senate and the Pentagon, chiefly over a plan altering the use of the wartime overseas contingency operations (OCO) account. – Defense NewsCome January, the Pentagon will almost assuredly have new leadership, complete with a new vision for how the Department of Defense should operate, organize and plan for the future. It’s a reality facing down Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Deputy Secretary Bob Work as they try to complete a transformation at the Pentagon, one which both men have said is vital to making sure the US is able to maintain its technological edge against great powers like Russia and China in the future. – Defense News

Thomas Donnelly writes: In sum, “doing more with less” has been the motto of the post-Cold War military, and it should be no surprise that the result is not simply diminished capacity and capability but diminished readiness. A force that is too small can never catch up with demand. – Hoover Institution’s StrategikaAdmiral Gary Roughead, USN (Ret.) writes: We can drift blissfully into the future assuming the force we need is the force we will have. Strategically that is a dangerous assumption. Future global security challenges and demands may be uncertain, but what is certain is the need to urgently and honestly get into the details of what we must do to assure our future military capability and capacity. – Hoover Institution’s Strategika

Peter Bergen reports: McRaven, who retired from running Special Operations Command in 2014 and is now Chancellor of the University of Texas, sat down with CNN to talk about the bin Laden operation. - CNNMichael Kugelman writes: Five years after Osama Bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, his global terror syndicate continues to flourish. Al Qaeda boasts a variety of regional affiliates across the Middle East and Africa, most notably al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which remains a considerable threat to the West. – WSJ’s Think Tank